Poetry Kaleidoscope: Guide to Poetry

Confessionalism

Confessionalism is a label formally applied to a style of
American poetry that emerged in the
1950s and 1960s. The label
continues to be applied, though usually in a derogatory sense, to poetry
about personal experience, particularly when that poetry is written
carelessly or thoughtlessly.

Confessionalist poets draw on personal history for their inspiration.
Often well schooled in verse
traditions, they choose to mine their own lives for subject matter, often
using personal trauma as fuel for literary or dramatic effect. Of the poets
emerging in the late 1950s,
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton are most commonly identified as Confessionalists.
Much of John Berryman's work is considered Confessionalist, and Robert Lowell is
widely regarded as the most accomplished in the Confessionalist movement. There
are strong Confessionalist elements in the work of the Beat poets in the 1950s
and 1960s, notably in Allen Ginsberg.

Many Confessionalist writers explore themes of madness in their poetry.
Although most Confessionalist poets of the 1950s and 1960s met and knew each
other, they did not seek to identify themselves as part of a distinct literary
movement. The label was developed and applied to the movement in the 1970s.